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We had a flurry of #donorlove submissions come through before it ended, and this week we’re covering the last few examples that squeaked in before the deadline.

Today’s example of donor love comes from Collette Brown at CLIC Sargent. I’d stalked Collette a little to get a submission as I’ve seen her pop up on Twitter regularly asking for and sharing ways to make people feel special; so you know she’s got some cracking examples up her sleeve, and she did not disappoint. Below are a couple of the examples she provided from both her current fundraising role and from her time at The Air Ambulance Service.

“At CLIC Sargent, I often use “thanks a million.” It’s a little individual way of showing individual donors, volunteers and my colleagues that I really appreciate their support. One way this made an impact was with one of our young service users. Her friends organised her a surprise fundraising ball raising over £2400 to support people just like her, going through a cancer diagnosis and treatment. They’d done a brilliant job, how could I possibly say thank you in a way that would mean something to them? I think, like most fundraisers we know that people raise huge amounts for our charities, but we can’t thank them with expensive gifts – so you have to get creative. I often turn to Pinterest for inspiration, but this one was of my own making. I picked up a packet of the millions sweets from the supermarket and whenever someone does something extra special, I send them a packet in the post with a handwritten thank you card that says “thanks a million.” It’s really simple, probably cost me less than 20p for each donor, but it’s always the thought that counts. For our service user and her friends, it certainly made them smile. I often get emails saying, thank you for the little surprises and they’d brightened up their day. How did I know it worked for this donor in particular? Well she’s formed a fundraising group for CLIC Sargent now and it about to complete her first fundraising event for us this weekend. I’m not saying the “thanks a million” caused all of this, but it certainly is the little things that count when it comes to donor love.

Another example, was with my volunteers at The Air Ambulance Service. Again, we had so many wonderful, long-standing volunteers. Each year we were always faced with the dilemma of how to thank our volunteers in a cost-effective, but meaningful way. Our volunteers raised so much money for the charity, they certainly didn’t want us to spend it on a gift for them to say thank you. This is where “have a brew, from our crew” came in. Instead of giving them a gift, myself and my manager spent time making them a little card with an individual tea bag in, which read “ have a brew from your crew – thank you for being a tea-riffic volunteer.” All our volunteers loved it. It was simple, certainly cheesy but overall out a smile on their face. Because the gesture was small too, it meant that any volunteers who we didn’t see face to face could have their token gift posted out to them for the price of a postage stamp. In fact one of our corporate sponsors, donated the tea-bags for us, so all it cost was a few stamps and an evening of crafting by their volunteer manager.”

Why we love this:

Collette has created a unique “calling card” that links wonderfully with her personality, creating a feeling of authenticity and gratitude.

The simple things are sustainable, showing it doesn’t cost or take a lot to say thank you with feeling.

The addition of sweets and tea bags creates another layer of “human” to the interactions. A hand-written card is perfect, but the extra delighter knocks it out of the park.

Thank you to Collette for her submissions (and for not blocking me on Twitter) – keep up the amazing work at CLIC Sargent!

We’ll be asking a special judge to pick their favourite example of the #donorlove celebration once all examples are presented. Be sure to subscribe to be the first to find out who has won!

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